Air-supported building



Oct. 23, 1962 H. D. TURNER 3,059,657

AIR-SUPPORTED BUILDING Filed D60. 16, 1958 2 Sheets$heet l INVENTOR.HAROLD D. TURNER f/orney 1952 H. D. TURNER 3,059,657

AIR-SUPPORTED BUILDING Filed Dec. 16, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

HAR LD 0 TURNER Aflome y United States Patent @fifire 3,059,657 PatentedOct. 23, 1962 3,059,657 AIR-SUPPORTED BUILDING Harold Dale Turner,Laurel, Miss. (Crane Road, RR. 1, St. Charles, Ill.) Filed Dec. 16,1958, Ser. No. 780,840 2 Claims. (Cl. 1351) This application relates tomeans for attaching an airsupported building to the ground or the earth.

This is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Serial No.623,069, filed November 19, 1956 having the same title, now abandoned.

Air-supported buildings have been proposed heretofore, particularly forexample, in Patent 1,302,182, and various means have been proposed orsuggested for attaching such buildings to the ground, for example, bymeans of attachment to a concrete foundation, as illustrated in myco-pending application Serial No. 623,069, now abandoned, or by othersuitable means such as by attachment to a wooden foundation or to woodenpanels or wooden pegs set into the ground or the like.

In order to economically provide an air-supported building it isdesirable to provide a simple means for securing the edges of such abuilding to the ground and which can be installed relatively quickly,simply and economically by inexperienced and untrained personnel whogenerally cannot be counted upon to be either gentle or careful in theirhandling of the installation.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improvedapparatus and method for securing the edges of an air-supported buildingto the ground in a manner which will substantially prevent the leakageof air at said edges and which will anchor the building to the earth,and at the same time can be installed with a relatively high degree ofease and speed.

Further objects will become apparent from the drawings and the followingdetailed description in which it is my intention to illustrate theapplicability of the invention without thereby limiting its scope toless than that of all those equivalents which will be apparent to oneskilled in the art.

In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts and:

FIGURE 1 is a partially cut away perspective view of an air-supportedbuilding attached to the ground in accordance with the invention;

FIGURES 2, 3 and 4 are partially cut away perspective views of a portionof the lower edge of a building according to FIGURE 1, prepared forattachment to the ground in the manner shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 5 is a partially cut away perspective view of an air-supportedbuilding secured to the ground in accordance with the invention.

Referring now to FIGURE 1 there is shown an airsupported buildingindicated generally as 2 comprising panels 3, of flexible material.Although air-supported buildings generally may be constructed of anysuitable relatively gas impervious flexible material such as rubberimpregnated canvas, plastic impregnated canvas, plastic impregnatedwoven fabric, plastic impregnated glass fabric, and impregnated ortightly woven fabrics of other types, and any such material may beutilized for the purpose of this invention and are suitable forrelatively temporary installations such as tents, it is preferable, inorder to obtain the greatest benefit of the invention and to makepossible its utilization in relatively permanent installations, that thematerial of which panels 3 is made be of a rot, mold and moistureresistant type such as a nylon fabric impregnated with polyvinylchlorideor a co-polymer of vinylchloride and vinylidene chloride, for examplesuch as that sold commercially as Saran or .a co-polymer ofvinylchloride and vinylacetate. Many other synthetic resins will providesuitable mold resistance. A cotton fabric impregnated withchlorine-containing vinyl polymer is substantially impervious to ratsand the rot and mold resistance of nylon make it an excellent fabricmaterial for use with such impregnation. Other synthetic resins whichmay be used if desired include polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate,co-opolymers of butadiene and styrene, butadiene and acrylonitrile, andacrylonitrile and styrene. Polyethylene, which has relatively poorweather resistance, and many other flexible of rubbery synthetic ornatural plastics may also be used. Laminates of films and woven ornon-woven reinforcing strands may be utilized. Panels 3 may be attachedto one another by any suitable means adapted to prevent for the mostpart any escape of air at the joint. They may be stitched together,adhered to one another, laced together, stapled together or the like.Portions adjacent the bottom edge of panel 3 are turned upward to form abight 6 and the edge of the upwardly turned portion is fastened to thestanding part at 5 by any suitable method as shown. Attachment may be asbefore described by adhesive, stitching, stapling, tacking or the like.As shown in FIGURE 1, a cylindrical or tubular object 7 is inserted intobight 6. The bottom edge of the panels thus consist of bight 6containing tubular or cylindrical object 7. The bottom edges of panels 3may then be introduced into the bottom of trench 8 as shown in FIGURE 1and dirt may be introduced on top thereof by any suitable means such asby shoveling or bulldozing to securely and permanently secure said edgesin the earth. The bottom edges of panels 3 may also be positioned on topof the ground as shown in FIGURE 5, by fastening the elongated membersto the ground by means of suitable ground anchors. The latter method ismore economical and quicker to assemble since no trench is required.Suitable elongated objects for introducing and maintaining a suitablebulbous cross-section at the bottom of panels 3 include, as illustratedin FIGURES 2 to 4, vitreous drain tiles 9, molded asbestos sewer pipe 10and fence posts or telegraph posts 11. As shown in FIG- URE 3, thehollow space formed at the bottom edges of panels 3 by the bight 6 maybe substantially continuous in length or may be made discontinuous asshown in FIGURES 2 and 4, by introduction of slots or slits 12. Thehollow space formed by bight 6 may thus be made discontinuous and theremay thus be provided means for the more ready introduction of members 7.By the use of hollow members, such as drain tiles 9 or sewer pipe 10,drainage for the building is provided at the same time that its edgesare anchored down and a double purpose is served. If the embodiment ofFIGURE 1 is utilized i.e., a trench, by tamping earth down after itsintroduction in the trench, even by light tamping, a desirable andeffective substantially hermetic seal is obtained and building 2 isattached to the earth or ground 3 a with suificient firmness to preventits destruction by escape of air therefrom, by wind gusts or by theintroduction of air under wind-pressure into its interior.

Having thus disclosed my invention, I claim:

1. An air-supported building of flexible material supported by airpressure Within the building, said building having an outer edge andhaving a hem at said outer edge and said pressure causing a strongupward force to be exerted on said hem substantially uniformly along itslength, said building being secured to the ground at said outer edge byelongated members inserted in said hem formed at said edge of saidbuilding, said members being attached to the ground in the desiredposition in a trench with back-filling thereabove so as to resist saidupward force.

2. The building of claim 1 wherein said members are drain tiles.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,302,182 Lanchester Apr. 29, 1919 1,357,523 Schindler Nov. 2, 19201,374,994 Faik Apr. 19, 1921 1,834,084 Barnes Dec. 1, 1931 2,335,300Nefi Nov. 30, 1943 2,646,810 Danciart July 28, 1953 2,649,101 Suits Aug.18, 1953 2,731,055 Smith Jan. 17, 1956 2,910,994 Joy Nov. 3, 1959

